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    The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Kitchen

    The heartwarming Japanese cat novel about fate and the healing power of food

    Author Yuta Takahashi
    Translated by Cat Anderson
    Look inside
    Paperback
    $18.00 US
    Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Books
    5.05"W x 7.67"H x 0.61"D   | 6 oz | 24 per carton
    On sale Feb 24, 2026 | 224 Pages | 9780143138624
    Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

    Follow the seashell path along Tokyo Bay until you get to the Chibineko Kitchen, where a traditional Japanese meal can summon anyone you choose from your past, but only for as long as it continues to steam . . . —for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, The Midnight Library, and Studio Ghibli films like Spirited Away.

    If you could speak one last time to someone you’ve lost, what would you tell them?

    One sunny morning, the Chibineko Kitchen opens its doors to Nagi, a young woman facing an impossible choice: Should she marry her boyfriend, despite knowing she has only a few years left to live? Desperate for advice from her mother, who died years ago, she hopes that one of the Chibineko Kitchen’s fabled meals will work its magic.

    Such is the promise that attracts three others to the restaurant: an anxious man rebuilding his life after shutting himself away for years, a lonely widow unaware that she is surrounded by friends, and a theater director hoping to rekindle his career after a tragic accident. In the company of Kai, the Chibineko Kitchen’s chef; Kotoko, who has experienced the miracle of the restaurant and now works there; and Chibi, the resident kitten, each sits down to a meal of uncanny personal meaning that has the potential to reunite them with a departed loved one—and to remind them what matters most in life.

    Menu
    Tofu no Misozuke: Miso-marinated tofu
    Buta Bara no Kara-age: Fried pork belly
    Iwashi no Kabayaki-don: Soy-glazed sardines on rice
    Shime no Kare: Curry using leftover hotpot
    “Moving.” —Library Journal, starred review

    “Readers will welcome the second volume in the internationally best-selling, J-healing . . . series. . . . Invitingly translated . . . Recipes—for miso-marinated tofu, fried pork belly, soy-glazed sardines, leftover hotpot curry—are appended to each chapter, presented with seemingly do-try-this-at-home cookability.” —Booklist
    Yuta Takahashi is the award-winning author of the eight-book series Meals to Remember at the Chibineko Kitchen as well as several other popular series spanning historical and contemporary fiction. He was born in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, and now lives in Tokyo. View titles by Yuta Takahashi

    About

    Follow the seashell path along Tokyo Bay until you get to the Chibineko Kitchen, where a traditional Japanese meal can summon anyone you choose from your past, but only for as long as it continues to steam . . . —for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, The Midnight Library, and Studio Ghibli films like Spirited Away.

    If you could speak one last time to someone you’ve lost, what would you tell them?

    One sunny morning, the Chibineko Kitchen opens its doors to Nagi, a young woman facing an impossible choice: Should she marry her boyfriend, despite knowing she has only a few years left to live? Desperate for advice from her mother, who died years ago, she hopes that one of the Chibineko Kitchen’s fabled meals will work its magic.

    Such is the promise that attracts three others to the restaurant: an anxious man rebuilding his life after shutting himself away for years, a lonely widow unaware that she is surrounded by friends, and a theater director hoping to rekindle his career after a tragic accident. In the company of Kai, the Chibineko Kitchen’s chef; Kotoko, who has experienced the miracle of the restaurant and now works there; and Chibi, the resident kitten, each sits down to a meal of uncanny personal meaning that has the potential to reunite them with a departed loved one—and to remind them what matters most in life.

    Menu
    Tofu no Misozuke: Miso-marinated tofu
    Buta Bara no Kara-age: Fried pork belly
    Iwashi no Kabayaki-don: Soy-glazed sardines on rice
    Shime no Kare: Curry using leftover hotpot

    Praise

    “Moving.” —Library Journal, starred review

    “Readers will welcome the second volume in the internationally best-selling, J-healing . . . series. . . . Invitingly translated . . . Recipes—for miso-marinated tofu, fried pork belly, soy-glazed sardines, leftover hotpot curry—are appended to each chapter, presented with seemingly do-try-this-at-home cookability.” —Booklist

    Author

    Yuta Takahashi is the award-winning author of the eight-book series Meals to Remember at the Chibineko Kitchen as well as several other popular series spanning historical and contemporary fiction. He was born in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, and now lives in Tokyo. View titles by Yuta Takahashi

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